Holidays and Sugar Cookies

I love sugar cookies, but I've never really rolled and cut up cookies. Too much work. I prefer the drop cookies method. But since folks have been bringing goodies to the office- I recently got reacquainted with the holiday favorite: frosted sugar cookies. I love the buttery flakiness of the cookie and the texture and melt-in-your mouth goodness of the sugary frosting. So I decided to try it out.

I wanted to make vegan sugar cookies (just to try that business out), but there were too many specialty vegan ingredients I didn't have. So I just had a normal sugar cookie recipe and a soy icing. Interesting combination. I'd like to try a fully vegan recipe and a fully non-vegan recipe (well I just mean non vegan elements, I'm not going to make pork cookies anytime soon).

These cookies are not exactly the ideal light flaky rolled sugar cookie I like. However, they are still good. They have a nice not-too-sweet flavor (bordering on bland. hmm. more sugar? cardamom? butter? maybe I should use butter flavored shortening instead of butter?) with a little extra (I think the almond extract does it). The frosting is not thick, but more like a nice sugar frosting glaze. However, I like the denseness of the cookie and I like how well it keeps (it tasted better on the 3rd day than it did on the 1st day. What?). So I say "yes" to these cookies however my search is not quite over yet. I would definitely use this recipe for making sugar cookie ornaments. I think they would hold up nicely!

Holiday '08 Sugar Cookies

(photos courtesy of roomie Grace)

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flours, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

* * * * *
ICING RECIPE
Each batch is enough to easily coat 24 cookies. We made four batches, one for each color.

2 cups confectioners' sugar 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
6-8 teaspoons of soy milk (Silk Vanilla) Assorted food coloring
4 teaspoons of light corn syrup

Directions:
1. In medium bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and soy milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Add food coloring to desired intensity. Dip cookies and allow to dry overnight.